Heartland Weekly – Harvard’s Bogus ExxonMobil Study

Billy Aouste is the new media specialist for The Heartland Institute. He is responsible for many projects at Heartland, including producing and managing social media outreach; pitching op-eds to print and digital publications; producing Heartland's weekly email; editing Heartland’s blog, the Freedom Pub; and tracking Heartland experts’ media hits.

Aouste is a graduate from DePaul University with a BA in Political Science. While studying he participated in the Fund for American Studies program in Washington D.C. Prior to joining Heartland in 2015, he was a staff intern on Bruce Rauner’s successful Illinois gubernatorial campaign. Aouste resides in Hainseville, Illinois.

If you don’t visit Freedom Pub and the Heartlander digital magazine every day, you’re missing out on some of the best news and commentary on liberty and free markets you can find. But worry not, freedom lovers! Heartland Weekly is here for you every Monday with a highlight show. Subscribe to the email today, and read this week’s edition below.

The Example of Self-Sacrifice in Las Vegas Maria Moore, American Exceptionalism
Amid the chaos and fear of Monday’s horrific and undeniably evil mass shooting in Las Vegas, there were those who put themselves in harm’s way in efforts to save others. These examples of self-sacrifice showcase what a true American hero looks like and gives hope to the idea that there are still beacons of light in a society which so often favors darkness. Once again, a terrible calamity has brought the best out in many individuals, confirming that such atrocities cannot break the American spirit. READ MORE

How the GOP Tax Reform Framework Will Help Them in 2020 Justin Haskins, Washington Examiner
​The White House and congressional Republicans released a tax reform framework that will serve as a template to “achieve pro-American, fiscally-responsible tax reform.” Tax “frameworks” are never passed in their entirety, but if the plan released by Republicans is anything close to what eventually becomes law, all Americans will benefit substantially. The framework is based on several pro-business principles: simplifying the tax code, providing tax relief for both large and small businesses, ending loopholes for special interests, and making the tax code more competitive in the global market. READ MORE

Harvard’s Bogus ExxonMobil Study Tim Benson, American Thinker
Harvard University’s Naomi Oreskes and her post-doctoral fellow, Geoffrey Supran, are co-authors of a new, highly controversial study claiming that energy giant ExxonMobil purposefully misled the public on the dangers of climate change. Usually, scientists at least try to hide their biases and political motivations in their published research, but Oreskes’ hatred of the fossil fuel industry is evident here. READ MORE

Featured Podcast: Hurricane Relief Is Brought to You by Fossil Fuels
Heartland Institute Research Fellow H. Sterling Burnett and columnist Caroline Camden Lewis explore the myriad ways fossil fuels lessened the damage done and lives lost to hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Fossil fuels are and will continue to be critical to ongoing relief, restoration, and recovery efforts. Fossil fuels power the tools necessary to track and flee from storms as well as those necessary to clear debris, deliver supplies, harden infrastructure, and provide medical care to those in need. LISTEN TO MORE

America First Energy Conference
President Trump has already turned back years of Obama’s anti-energy policies, allowing the United States to once again emerge as a global energy leader. This is an amazing turn of events, one that would have been impossible had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election. To discuss this remarkable moment in history, The Heartland Institute is gathering the country’s best energy policy experts, as well as key players in the industry, for the America First Energy Conference at the J.W. Marriott Galleria Hotel in Houston, Texas on Thursday, November 9, 2017. Join Heartland for an event that will explain what has happened, and more importantly, what comes next. REGISTER NOW

How to Make Elite Colleges Less ElitistJane Shaw, RealClearEducation
The facts are pretty damning: The Ivy League and other selective schools are bastions of privileged students. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation finds that colleges are “highly stratified by socioeconomic class, with 72 percent of students in the nation’s most competitive institutions coming from families in the wealthiest quartile.” Meanwhile, the IRS reports “children whose parents are in the top 1 percent of the income distribution are 77 times more likely to attend an Ivy League college than those whose parents are in the bottom income quintile.” READ MORE

NYC Charter School Gains Equivalent to Months of More Learning, Study FindsTeresa Mull, School Choice Weekly
It should come as no shock that even slight separation from government oversight, as is the case with charter schools, improves life for children, parents, and society. A new study from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Educational Outcomes shows that students in charter schools excelled far above their peers in math and reading. Don’t worry, though. Teachers unions and the educational elite won’t let the evidence on the benefits of school choice sway their battle against offering families learning alternatives. READ MORE

Is Big Brother Trying to Enforce Climate Orthodoxy?H. Sterling Burnett, Climate Change Weekly
When a journalist, activist, scientist, or government watchdog suffers repercussions in Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or China, no one is surprised. People are shocked however when those in political power attempt to quash open debate over topics of public importance in the United States – and, to a lesser extent, in other Western countries. The government of Canada just wrapped up an investigation against organizations and individuals who publicly communicated their skeptical views about human-caused catastrophic global warming. The good news is that Canada’s “Commissioner of Competition” dropped the case. The bad news is that such an investigation could last 14 months in what is supposed to be a free society. READ MORE

Bonus Podcast: Akash Chougule, Americans for Prosperity: Gas Tax Hikes Pump Up Taxpayers’ Burden
Americans for Prosperity Director of Policy Akash Chougule talks with Heartland Institute Research Fellow Jesse Hathaway about a voter initiative revving up California to repeal a big gas-tax hike. In April, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) approved a 43 percent hike in the state’s excise on gasoline, citing the need for more spending on government road constructions. Taxpayers are now pushing back by collecting signatures to undo the gas tax hike. LISTEN TO MORE

We Can Provide Universal Broadband Just By Using TV ‘White Space’Peter Ferrara, Investor’s Business Daily
Some 34 million Americans lack access to broadband today, two thirds (23.4 million) in rural areas. But utilizing TV “white spaces” plus existing wireless technologies and satellite coverage would bring universal broadband across America at 80% lower costs, leaving no need for new federal spending to accomplish that goal. Specially manufactured white-space devices that can provide internet access through this currently existing unused bandwidth are the lowest-cost means of extending high speed internet to rural America. READ MORE

America Is in Dire Need of Mens Rea ReformDavid D’Amato, Townhall
America is much less the land of the free than it is the land where everything is illegal – where, as John Stossel pointed out in 2012, “no one can know what is legal.” Today, America’s statutory codes are brimful with increasingly more obscure crimes – so many crimes that no single mind could possibly be aware of them all. The sphere of individual liberty is steadily narrowing, the list of forbidden activities growing ever longer. READ MORE

Talk With Heartland Experts!
You are cordially invited to participate in an exclusive monthly conference call for supporters who give $250 or more to The Heartland Institute. The first Wednesday of each month we will host a 20- to 30-minute call with a short presentation by one or more of Heartland’s senior staff.

Please RSVP to Gwendalyn Carver at 312/377-4000 or gcarver@heartland.org. You will receive dial-in information upon confirmation of your participation. DONATE HERE

Help Us Stop Wikipedia’s Lies!
Have you visited Heartland’s Wikipedia page recently? The good news is that it is more complete than it was just a couple months ago, after leftists took it over and trashed it. Most of the new information is accurate and unbiased. But the lies and libel about our positions on smoking and climate change remain. Other conservative and free-market sites suffer, too. Wikipedia refuses to make many of the changes we request and deletes and reverses the changes made by others. We need your help! READ MORE